Coaching Your Staff … One of the Most Important Tasks of a Business Leader

Your employees are your business … that is as simple as it gets. If they do well, your business usually does well, and vice versa. They need to know what you expect and how well they are doing occasionally. Coaching is how you let them know how well they are doing their work and how their behaviors are undermining or supporting their or their team’s effectiveness.

Whether you are giving the motivation to let someone know what they did well or telling someone what needs to be changed and how to do it, coaching can be of great value or it can be harmful.

How can you ensure you do better when you coach your staff? Here are some tips that should help:

Be specific as possible …

use examples of what’s working or what could be improved or done differently. “The data you gave me was accurate, clear and on time which meant I was well prepared for the meeting”

Timely…

give coaching input as close as possible to the event or behavior.

Learn these also: Business Leaders: 7 Lessons My Silent Mentor Jack Welch Taught Me

Descriptive, not evaluative …

talk about what you noticed, not your interpretation of what you saw. “You were slouching in your chair and looking out of the window” rather than “You weren’t interested”

Ensure you are objective …

make your comments neutral and based on facts. “You have been over 10 minutes late three times this week, rather than “You’re always late!”

Base on first-hand observations …

based on what you personally saw or heard.

Balanced …

forget the “praise sandwich,” where you give a positive, a negative, and a positive. Avoid giving both together.

Action-Focused …

inputs need to be directed towards behaviors that people can do something about. Give examples of what action you expect.

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.